Markets nervous as Obama tries to sell military strike against Syria

Get ready for a week of economic ups and downs as President Barack Obama tries to convince Congress to authorize a military strike against Syria.

Today, Syria cast a shadow over the stock market, which was poised for big gains after good economic news. Instead, the Dow Jones Industrial Average eked out a gain of only 24 points.

Oil markets also are nervous about what might happen in the wake of a U.S. attack on Syria. The price of crude oil shot higher this morning when missile launches in the Mediterranean were reported -- it turned out it was only a joint U.S./Israel test of a new air-defense system. Once the missiles really start flying, crude oil could skyrocket to as high as $124 a barrel, predicts Jeff Kilburg, CEO and founder of KKM Financial.

Meanwhile, Obama has a difficult political challenge ahead of him. Nearly 60 percent of Americans oppose missile strikes against Syria, according to a Wall Street Journal/ABC News poll conducted Aug. 28-Sept. 1. This opposition runs across political lines and is strongest among independents, the poll found.

Obama did win important support for a resolution authorizing a limited strike against Syria, when the House's two top Republican leaders, Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor, said they would vote for it. But a Boehner spokesman said the speaker won't push his fellow Republicans to vote for the resolution -- it's up to Obama to make that case.

Secretary of State John Kerry went before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee this afternoon to convince senators that the U.S. needs to punish the Syrian government for its use of chemical weapons and degrade its capacity to do so again.

The president is "not asking America to go to war," Kerry said.

"This administration has zero intention of putting boots on the ground."

But then Kerry made the mistake of "thinking out loud."

"I don't want to take off the table an option that might be available to the president of the United States," he said, in case Syria "implodes" or terrorists gets ahold of chemical weapons.

So the door is open to American troops being deployed in Syria?

"Let's shut that door now as tight as we can," Kerry said.

"This authorization does not contemplate, or should not have any allowance, for any troops on the ground," he said.

Kerry said he was just "hypothesizing" about what might occur at some point in time.

It's hypotheticals like this that make many Americans hesitant to bomb Syria. You just don't know what might happen.

Kerry said the dangers of not acting are worse than the risks of acting. Doing nothing not only not only will strengthen Syrian dictator Bashar Assad, it also would give a "permission slip" for Iran, Hezbollah and North Korea to pursue weapons of mass destruction, he said.

"This is not the time for armchair isolationists," Kerry said. "This is not the time to be spectators to slaughter."